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Wednesday, June 15, 2011

[PREDICTIONS] The good news and the bad news about Google Buzz and Google Profiles

Ok. Uhm... I recently noticed a lot of stuff going on in Google Buzz... Lots of bugs appeared, strange disruptions in the timeline (without timetravelling Delorians or Killerrobots involved)... and strange shifts in the code.

I will now list all the clues I've gathered so far

I dissected the plusone code and found hints to something with the codename "chili". I was excited at first and digged deeper, but it turned out, that chili was the old codename of Google Buzz.
The weird thing is: Why would Google use Buzz's vanilla prototype code in their new, fresh implementation of plusOne?
And second interesting fact: This code is transmitted every time a plusOne button is rendered, but not actively used. This means for me, that it is a code that is implemented for FUTURE use.
I sneak around in Googles code since a very long time and there are just a few occurrences of dead, obsolete code, that still somehow has a meaning in some way. But this is new, fresh code.. directly out of Google's opensocial bakery.

Another odd thing is, that in the code I lately discovered in the Google Profiles, Buzz is heavily integrated, but the terminology has changed. In Google Buzz/gMail, there are still lots of references to Buzz as a brand:

"L","LIKE","Like/Unlike Buzz"

where in the new Profiles all buzzes are still technically buzzes but referenced to as "posts"

and as I checked again the original Buzz code from gMail, I stumbled over this:

newVAa("updates","Buzz",{view:At,search:wr.Ja()},[At],l,l,"Xo")),newzCa(a))}});Gl.Ll("gb","GO_UPDATES","Go to Buzz");nBa.rn.push("GO_UPDATES");

What you can see here are strings that are defined. I can't really tell what these functions do, but I assume that the internal name for Buzz-posts is (now or might always have been) "updates".

If you paid closely attention, you might have also noticed that some visible terminology has changed:

The mobile Google Buzz:

No "Post to Google Buzz"

For example under "Manage Account Data" everything related to Buzz points to the Google Profile as primary Instance... There is no "Delete Google Buzz", no... it is just "Edit Google Profile" or "Delete Google Profile"

Same here in the Google Mail settings:

You can't opt out Google Buzz anymore without deleting your whole Profile, including losing the option to use +1 and the other upcoming advanced features that require a Google profile.

So I ask myself:
If Google pushes the featureset of Google profiles like insane lately (including Google Places, which will be closely connected to the Google Profile), adding +1 and such... Why is opting out from Buzz not possible without deleting your Profile too? And why is Buzz so troubled lately? And why did they add the new and quite awesome "Drag&Drop" photoupload to Google Buzz if the term "Buzz" is slowly disappearing?

Why do they use the code and don't use the terminology?

Is Buzz dead?

Or... is it more alive then ever?

Google Buzz will not die... It graduates. It will soon be part of Profiles. Like hotpot became part of Places (yeah Places was the Business listing for Maps before the fusion)

Buzz gets a bigger featureset and right now the data of all users are pushed into the new system. All the crap we are encountering is a side-effect of the migration to Profiles.

And the launch is imminent. It will happen real fucking soon.

That's the reason for the delay of the people widget rollout.
And that's the reason for the rollout of this "Me on the Web" tool. This tool should make the users feel safe and in control of their informationbefore they launch the full featureset of Google Profiles!

Look up the Google Buzz Widget in the Android market.It's gone.But if you have it installed, it still works.

So... Buzz will probably disappear as a brand... and will be reborn. And it will be awesome!

UPDATE: BUZZ IS HERE TO STAY :D

Something big is coming real soon. Maybe today. Maybe tomorrow.

But it's real soon.

Ok. Uhm... I recently noticed a lot of stuff going on in Google Buzz... Lots of bugs appeared, strange disruptions in the timeline (without timetravelling Delorians or Killerrobots involved)... and strange shifts in the code.

I will now list all the clues I've gathered so far

I dissected the plusone code and found hints to something with the codename "chili". I was excited at first and digged deeper, but it turned out, that chili was the old codename of Google Buzz.
The weird thing is: Why would Google use Buzz's vanilla prototype code in their new, fresh implementation of plusOne?
And second interesting fact: This code is transmitted every time a plusOne button is rendered, but not actively used. This means for me, that it is a code that is implemented for FUTURE use.
I sneak around in Googles code since a very long time and there are just a few occurrences of dead, obsolete code, that still somehow has a meaning in some way. But this is new, fresh code.. directly out of Google's opensocial bakery.

Another odd thing is, that in the code I lately discovered in the Google Profiles, Buzz is heavily integrated, but the terminology has changed. In Google Buzz/gMail, there are still lots of references to Buzz as a brand:

"L","LIKE","Like/Unlike Buzz"

where in the new Profiles all buzzes are still technically buzzes but referenced to as "posts"

and as I checked again the original Buzz code from gMail, I stumbled over this:

newVAa("updates","Buzz",{view:At,search:wr.Ja()},[At],l,l,"Xo")),newzCa(a))}});Gl.Ll("gb","GO_UPDATES","Go to Buzz");nBa.rn.push("GO_UPDATES");

What you can see here are strings that are defined. I can't really tell what these functions do, but I assume that the internal name for Buzz-posts is (now or might always have been) "updates".

If you paid closely attention, you might have also noticed that some visible terminology has changed:

The mobile Google Buzz:

No "Post to Google Buzz"

For example under "Manage Account Data" everything related to Buzz points to the Google Profile as primary Instance... There is no "Delete Google Buzz", no... it is just "Edit Google Profile" or "Delete Google Profile"

Same here in the Google Mail settings:

You can't opt out Google Buzz anymore without deleting your whole Profile, including losing the option to use +1 and the other upcoming advanced features that require a Google profile.

So I ask myself:
If Google pushes the featureset of Google profiles like insane lately (including Google Places, which will be closely connected to the Google Profile), adding +1 and such... Why is opting out from Buzz not possible without deleting your Profile too? And why is Buzz so troubled lately? And why did they add the new and quite awesome "Drag&Drop" photoupload to Google Buzz if the term "Buzz" is slowly disappearing?

Why do they use the code and don't use the terminology?

Is Buzz dead?

Or... is it more alive then ever?

Google Buzz will not die... It graduates. It will soon be part of Profiles. Like hotpot became part of Places (yeah Places was the Business listing for Maps before the fusion)

Buzz gets a bigger featureset and right now the data of all users are pushed into the new system. All the crap we are encountering is a side-effect of the migration to Profiles.

And the launch is imminent. It will happen real fucking soon.

That's the reason for the delay of the people widget rollout.
And that's the reason for the rollout of this "Me on the Web" tool. This tool should make the users feel safe and in control of their informationbefore they launch the full featureset of Google Profiles!

Look up the Google Buzz Widget in the Android market.It's gone.But if you have it installed, it still works.

So... Buzz will probably disappear as a brand... and will be reborn. And it will be awesome!

UPDATE: BUZZ IS HERE TO STAY :D

Something big is coming real soon. Maybe today. Maybe tomorrow.

But it's real soon.

[PREDICTIONS] The good news and the bad news about Google Buzz and Google Profiles